Surgical treatment of gastric adenocarcinoma: what factors influence the prognosis?

BACKGROUND: Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer in the world and the fourth leading cause of deaths in oncology. AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate the factors that affect the survival of patients with gastric adenocarcinoma undergoing gastrectomy in a tertiary center in South Brazil. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional, observational, and retrospective study of 82 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical treatment from January 2018 to August 2022. Epidemiological and prognostic factors were analyzed, such as age, sex, tumor location in the stomach, lymph node invasion, tumor extension, angiolymphatic invasion, tumor differentiation, presence of distant metastasis, compromised surgical margins, adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and patient survival time. RESULTS: Of the 82 patients, 41.5% died during the follow-up period, with a maximum follow-up period of 56 months. The median time to death was 22.4 months after performing the gastrectomy. Advanced age (hazard ratio [HR]=2.76; p=0.014, p<0.05), location of the tumor in the fundus of the stomach (HR=2.77; p=0.020, p>0.05), and presence of distant metastasis (HR=2.13; p=0.039) showed a significant negative impact on survival in the multivariate analysis. On the other hand, patients undergoing adjuvant (HR=5.33; p=0.001, p<0.05) or neoadjuvant (HR=3.36; p=0.006, p<0.05) chemotherapy had a positive impact. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that survival in patients with gastric adenocarcinoma is negatively influenced by advanced age, tumor location in the fundus of the stomach, and the presence of distant metastases, in contrast to the positive impact of performing adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy.